Rethinking Liveness through the Digital Real: The Virtual as a Performance Venue in Empirical Theatre Research

Kathleen Gallagher; Munia Debleena Tripathi; Lindsay Valve

Articles

Vol. 49 No. 1 (2024): Special Issue Staging Strategies: Trends in Canadian Drama and Performing Arts

Rethinking Liveness through the Digital Real: The Virtual as a Performance Venue in Empirical Theatre Research

Kathleen Gallagher^▸^▾
Munia Debleena Tripathi^▸^▾
Lindsay Valve^▸^▾

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Submitted: June 24, 2025
Published: 2025-06-24

References

Appadurai, Arjun. “The Cinematic Soteriology of Bollywood.” Handbook of Religion and the Asian City, edited by Peter van der Veer, U of California P, 2015, pp. 403-14, doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520281226.003.0022.
Auslander, Philip. “Against Ontology: Making Distinctions between the Live and the Mediatized.” Performance Research, vol. 2, no. 3, 1997, pp. 50-55, doi.org/10.1080/13528165.1997.10871569.
Bowditch, Rachel, et al. “Four Principles about Site-Specific Theatre: A Conversation on Architecture, Bodies, and Presence.” Theatre Topics, vol. 28, no. 1, 2018, pp. E-5-19, www.jhuptheatre.org/theatre-topics/online-content/issue/theatre-topicsvolume-28-number-1-march-2018/four-principles.
Brilli, Stefano, et al. “Theatre without Theatres: Investigating Access Barriers to Mediatized Theatre and Digital Liveness during the Covid-19 Pandemic.” Poetics, vol. 97, Apr. 2023, pp 1-12, doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2022.101750.
Brook, Peter. The Empty Space. 1st ed., Touchstone, 1996.
“Curate.” Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford UP, 1989.
Cziboly, Adam, and Adam Bethlenfalvy. “Response to COVID-19 Zooming in on Online Process Drama.” Research in Drama Education, vol. 25, no. 4, 2020, pp. 645–51, https://doi.org/10.1080/13569783.2020.1816818.
Davis, Susan. “Liveness, Mediation and Immediacy – Innovative Technology Use in Process and Performance.” Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, vol. 17, no.4, 2012, pp. 501-16, doi.org/10.1080/13569783.2012.727623.
Davis, Susan, and Louise Gwenneth Phillips. “Teaching during COVID 19 Times — The Experiences of Drama and Performing Arts Teachers and the Human Dimensions of Learning.” NJ: Drama Australia Journal, vol. 44, no. 2, 2020, pp. 66-87, doi.org/10.1080/14452294.2021.1943838.
Dikeç, Mustafa. “Pera Peras Poros: Longings for Spaces of Hospitality.” Theory, Culture & Society, vol. 19, no. 1-2, 2002, pp. 227-47, doi.org/10.1177/026327640201900111.
Dolan, Jill. “Utopia in Performance.” Theatre Research International, vol. 31, no. 2, 2006, pp. 163-73, doi.org/10.1017/S0307883306002100.
Gallagher, Kathleen, and Taylor Gokyilmaz. “Trans/Queer Representation and Drama: Engendering New Forms of Empathy and Relationality.” Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, vol. 28, no. 3, July 2023, pp. 442-59, doi.org/10.1080/13569783.2023.2205014.
Gallagher, Kathleen, et al. “Response to COVID-19 – Losing and Finding One Another in Drama: Personal Geographies, Digital Spaces and New Intimacies.” Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, vol. 25, no. 4, Sept. 2020, pp. 638–44, doi.org/10.1080/13569783.2020.1816817.
Harrington, Lalenja, et al. “Building Community in Virtual Space: A Community Collaborative Sustains Its Exploration of Environmental Justice and Migration Issues in the Midst of COVID-19.” Human Organization, vol. 81, no. 3, 2022, pp. 280-90, doi.org/10.17730/1938-3525-81.3.280.
Karaosmanoğlu, Gökhan, et al. “Can Drama Lessons Be Given Online? Perspectives of Drama Teachers during the COVID-19.” International Online Journal of Education and Teaching, vol. 9, no. 3, 2022, pp. 1249-72.
Molz, Jennie Germann, and Sarah Gibson. Mobilizing Hospitality: The Ethics of Social Relations in a Mobile World. Ashgate, 2007.
Mosse, Ramona, et al. “Viral Theatres’ Pandemic Playbook — Documenting German Theatre during COVID-19.” International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, vol. 18, no. 1, 2022, pp. 105–27, doi.org/10.1080/14794713.2022.2031800.
O’Farrell, Lawrence. Education and the Art of Drama. Deakin UP, 1994.
Pearson, Mike, and Michael Shanks. “Pearson|Shanks — Theatre/Archaeology — Return and Prospect.” Art and Archaeology, edited by I. Russell and A. Cochrane, One World Archaeology, vol. 11, Springer, 2013, pp. 199–230, doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8990-0_14.
Phelan, Peggy. Unmarked: The Politics of Performance. Taylor & Francis Group, 1993.
Reason, Matthew. “Young Audiences and Live Theatre, Part 1: Methods, Participation and Memory in Audience Research.” Studies in Theatre and Performance, vol. 26, no. 2, 2006, pp. 129-45.
Reason, Matthew, and Anja Mølle Lindelof, editors. Experiencing Liveness in Contemporary Performance: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. 1st ed., Routledge, 2016.
Sennett, Richard. The Craftsman. Yale UP, 2008.
Timplalexi, Eleni. “Theatre and Performance Go Massively Online during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications and Side Effects.” Home Virtualis, vol. 3, no. 2, Dec. 2020, pp. 43-54, doi.org/10.12681/homvir.25448.
Turner, Victor. From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play. Johns Hopkins UP, 1982.
Zittoun, Tania, et al. “A Sociocultural Perspective on Imagination.” Cambridge University Press eBooks, Cambridge UP, 2020, pp. 143-61, doi.org/10.1017/9781108580298.010.

How to Cite

Gallagher, K., Tripathi, M. D., & Valve, L. (2025). Rethinking Liveness through the Digital Real: The Virtual as a Performance Venue in Empirical Theatre Research. Studies in Canadian Literature, 49(1). Retrieved from https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/34891

Copyright Notice

[1] Appadurai, Arjun. “The Cinematic Soteriology of Bollywood.” Handbook of Religion and the Asian City, edited by Peter van der Veer, U of California P, 2015, pp. 403-14, doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520281226.003.0022.

[2] Auslander, Philip. “Against Ontology: Making Distinctions between the Live and the Mediatized.” Performance Research, vol. 2, no. 3, 1997, pp. 50-55, doi.org/10.1080/13528165.1997.10871569.

[3] Bowditch, Rachel, et al. “Four Principles about Site-Specific Theatre: A Conversation on Architecture, Bodies, and Presence.” Theatre Topics, vol. 28, no. 1, 2018, pp. E-5-19, www.jhuptheatre.org/theatre-topics/online-content/issue/theatre-topicsvolume-28-number-1-march-2018/four-principles.

[4] Brilli, Stefano, et al. “Theatre without Theatres: Investigating Access Barriers to Mediatized Theatre and Digital Liveness during the Covid-19 Pandemic.” Poetics, vol. 97, Apr. 2023, pp 1-12, doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2022.101750.

[5] Brook, Peter. The Empty Space. 1st ed., Touchstone, 1996.

[6] “Curate.” Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford UP, 1989.

[7] Cziboly, Adam, and Adam Bethlenfalvy. “Response to COVID-19 Zooming in on Online Process Drama.” Research in Drama Education, vol. 25, no. 4, 2020, pp. 645–51, https://doi.org/10.1080/13569783.2020.1816818.

[8] Davis, Susan. “Liveness, Mediation and Immediacy – Innovative Technology Use in Process and Performance.” Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, vol. 17, no.4, 2012, pp. 501-16, doi.org/10.1080/13569783.2012.727623.

[9] Davis, Susan, and Louise Gwenneth Phillips. “Teaching during COVID 19 Times — The Experiences of Drama and Performing Arts Teachers and the Human Dimensions of Learning.” NJ: Drama Australia Journal, vol. 44, no. 2, 2020, pp. 66-87, doi.org/10.1080/14452294.2021.1943838.

[10] Dikeç, Mustafa. “Pera Peras Poros: Longings for Spaces of Hospitality.” Theory, Culture & Society, vol. 19, no. 1-2, 2002, pp. 227-47, doi.org/10.1177/026327640201900111.

[11] Dolan, Jill. “Utopia in Performance.” Theatre Research International, vol. 31, no. 2, 2006, pp. 163-73, doi.org/10.1017/S0307883306002100.

[12] Gallagher, Kathleen, and Taylor Gokyilmaz. “Trans/Queer Representation and Drama: Engendering New Forms of Empathy and Relationality.” Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, vol. 28, no. 3, July 2023, pp. 442-59, doi.org/10.1080/13569783.2023.2205014.

[13] Gallagher, Kathleen, et al. “Response to COVID-19 – Losing and Finding One Another in Drama: Personal Geographies, Digital Spaces and New Intimacies.” Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, vol. 25, no. 4, Sept. 2020, pp. 638–44, doi.org/10.1080/13569783.2020.1816817.

[14] Harrington, Lalenja, et al. “Building Community in Virtual Space: A Community Collaborative Sustains Its Exploration of Environmental Justice and Migration Issues in the Midst of COVID-19.” Human Organization, vol. 81, no. 3, 2022, pp. 280-90, doi.org/10.17730/1938-3525-81.3.280.

[15] Karaosmanoğlu, Gökhan, et al. “Can Drama Lessons Be Given Online? Perspectives of Drama Teachers during the COVID-19.” International Online Journal of Education and Teaching, vol. 9, no. 3, 2022, pp. 1249-72.

[16] Molz, Jennie Germann, and Sarah Gibson. Mobilizing Hospitality: The Ethics of Social Relations in a Mobile World. Ashgate, 2007.

[17] Mosse, Ramona, et al. “Viral Theatres’ Pandemic Playbook — Documenting German Theatre during COVID-19.” International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, vol. 18, no. 1, 2022, pp. 105–27, doi.org/10.1080/14794713.2022.2031800.

[18] O’Farrell, Lawrence. Education and the Art of Drama. Deakin UP, 1994.

[19] Pearson, Mike, and Michael Shanks. “Pearson|Shanks — Theatre/Archaeology — Return and Prospect.” Art and Archaeology, edited by I. Russell and A. Cochrane, One World Archaeology, vol. 11, Springer, 2013, pp. 199–230, doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8990-0_14.

[20] Phelan, Peggy. Unmarked: The Politics of Performance. Taylor & Francis Group, 1993.

[21] Reason, Matthew. “Young Audiences and Live Theatre, Part 1: Methods, Participation and Memory in Audience Research.” Studies in Theatre and Performance, vol. 26, no. 2, 2006, pp. 129-45.

[22] Reason, Matthew, and Anja Mølle Lindelof, editors. Experiencing Liveness in Contemporary Performance: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. 1st ed., Routledge, 2016.

[23] Sennett, Richard. The Craftsman. Yale UP, 2008.

[24] Timplalexi, Eleni. “Theatre and Performance Go Massively Online during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications and Side Effects.” Home Virtualis, vol. 3, no. 2, Dec. 2020, pp. 43-54, doi.org/10.12681/homvir.25448.

[25] Turner, Victor. From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play. Johns Hopkins UP, 1982.

[26] Zittoun, Tania, et al. “A Sociocultural Perspective on Imagination.” Cambridge University Press eBooks, Cambridge UP, 2020, pp. 143-61, doi.org/10.1017/9781108580298.010.